The Top Five Languages: What They Are And Where They’re Spoken
Posted on 1st March 2022 at 15:06
The top five languages in the world are English, Chinese, Arabic, Hindi and Spanish.
All of these languages are interesting and complex in their own right, spoken widely across different countries, cultures and in many different dialects.
Read on to find out more about these amazing languages and where you are most likely to hear them:
English
At the moment, around 1,348 million people in the world speak English as their native language and many more speak it as a second language.
As a language it can be traced all the way back to when Germanic tribes invaded Britain during the 5th century. During this time those already occupying Britain were spread across Wales, Scotland, England and Ireland and the language already spoken was influenced by those invading the isles, and although English as we know it today wasn’t created then, this was the beginning of it starting to form.
It wasn’t until the 17th century, though, that English really started to take off, eventually expanding throughout the Industrial Revolution and the British Empire establishing. During these later decades the language expanded rapidly and fine-tuned, although words are still added to the dictionary annually as it continues to adapt, change and progress with modern times.
As it stands, many countries have English listed as the language spoken the most within that country and here are some of those countries:
USA
UK
Trinidad & Tobago
St Lucia
New Zealand
Jamaica
Ireland
Dominica
Belize
Barbados
Australia
Antigua and Barbuda
English is also recognised as an official language in around 67 countries and it is also spoken as a second or third language to some degree in many other places. As a general rule, if you want to work for a voice over agency, want to travel or do anything that involves needing a majority language to be spoken, English is an important language to master.
Chinese
Chinese is spoken by 16% of the world's population, which is over 1.31 billion people. There are various types of Chinese that are spoken (around 7-13) with Mandarin being the most widely spoken overall.
Chinese people actually originated in East Africa where early humans moved from East Africa through South Asia to the area now known as China tens of thousands of years ago. Chinese language, however, descends from the Sino-Tibeta family of languages and samples of it have been found as early as 1250 BCE inscribed on bones.
Today, Chinese is an official language in five countries including; China, Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong and Macau. Chinese is also one of the six official United Nations languages.
When it comes to learning Chinese, Mandarin Chinese is known to be incredibly hard to learn. The writing system is very different to the Latin alphabet used in the English language and pronunciation can also be very challenging to master. If you’re a beginner looking to learn a language, this might not be the easiest to choose, but it is valuable when it comes to language skills. This is especially true in business careers, so if you’re up for the challenge, it could be a good choice in that respect.
Hindi
Hindi is spoken by over 600 million people worldwide. It originates from a dialect called Khari Boli which was spoken with various different invaders of India who spoke various language types and thus developed the beginning of the language we know as Hindi today - so it has a lot of influences.
Many different dialects of Hindi exist today, and the language is found across the world in countries such as Yemen, Uganda, Bangladesh, Mauritius and South Africa.
Spanish
Spanish is spoken by over 450 million people worldwide, we teach it here at BilinguaSing too!
The language originated from Latin in the Iberian Peninsula, although it was an offshoot dialect of what is named Vulgar Latin now, and not written Latin, which you may recognise more easily. There are many different Latin dialects today, although the most popular and widely used is Castilian.
You will find Spanish spoken as an official language in 18 countries, some of which are;
Argentina
Costa Rica
Uruguay
Honduras
Mexico
Chile
Spain
Equatorial Guinea
Spanish is also spoken as a first and second language across the world in many other countries in various dialects and versions depending on the location.
For English speakers, Spanish is a common language to learn as a second language because it has such a wide reach. It is also phonetic in nature, which means that the way the words sound is the way the words are spelled, which can make a language easier to learn overall.
If Spanish is something you have an interest in learning, maybe take a look at our classes!
Standard Arabic
Arabic is spoken by 274 million people worldwide. The origins of Arabic are disputed with some people believing it to have come from Al Hirah and others saying that it came from Himyar. It comes from the Central Semitic language family along with Aramaic, Phoenician and Hebrew and the word Arab itself means nomad, which is why it is thought to perhaps stem from the Bedouin nomadic tribes in the Arabian deserts.
What we do know for sure is that it is one of the oldest languages in the world and today there are over 25 countries that use Arabic as an official or co-official language, some of which are:
Syria
Tunisia
Comoros
Egypt
Lebanon
Jordan
Iraq
The majority of Arabic speakers, however, are concentrated around The Arabian Peninsula, The Middle East, Asia and North Africa.
What do we offer at Bilinguasing?
The main languages of the world continue to change, spread and adapt as the global community develops. So, if you’re looking to learn a new language yourself, the five languages above are a great selection to consider if you want to have the most reach with your learning or content application.
Here at BilinguaSing we offer French, Spanish, German and Italian classes.
If you're interested in giving language learning a go, maybe check out our website!
Or if you're Bilingual already and have a passion for music, you might be interested in joining us as a franchisee!
What else can I do to start teaching my child a new language?
Join our FREE community of BilinguaSingers in 3 steps:
Step 1: Subscribe to BilinguaSing TV for free online lessons for babies, preschoolers and primary school kids
Step 2: Subscribe to the BilinguaSing newsletter for regular tips about learning languages at home with your family
Step 3: Join our free BilinguaSing Family group on Facebook so you can be part of a growing community of online language learners!
We can't wait to see you there!
The BilinguaSing Team
Tagged as: most spoken language in the world 2021, most spoken languages in the world 2020, most spoken languages in the world 2022, the most spoken language in the world, top 10 languages in the world, top 20 most spoken languages
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